the miseducation of cameron post by emily danforth

And then there are the diagrams of the icebergs Rick has the kids do. Or the moment when Cam suddenly speaks from the future (she mentions “since leaving Promise”). Camp Promise as a section has flaws: random moments of didactic teaching, like when Adam talks about being two spirited and suddenly he sounds a bit like an encyclopedia entry for half a page. And that’s a different story, one with major pacing issues within itself and within the context of the book. It’s very neatly structured each section connects to the next with the girl who isn’t the love but is accessible and speaks to a wider world of out, proud life each section ends with an event that changes everything.Īnd then there’s part 3, Camp Promise. Part 1: Irene Part 2: Coley Lindsay and Mona could have been interstitials almost. You could have called the section by the names of the girls Cam falls for. For the first two thirds (helpfully sectioned and titled as Part 1 and Part 2), there was one story, a slow coming of age, a grappling with first loves.

My irritation is exacerbated in this case precisely because there is so much to champion here.)

In realistic fiction, especially the more literary books, structural issues really bother me. In speculative fiction, I tend to get really hung up on world building. (I’m beginning to think that structure is the thing in realistic fiction that really eats at me. And the writing offers a lot to appreciate. It’s not a heart book for me, but it’s about the writing, not the personal love when it comes to determining what will take the crown. There are some flashes that make it clear that she’s writing this from the future, which I think weaken the voice overall the reminder that this was then and the now is different skips attention forward in a way that doesn’t entirely work, both because no details of that future are forthcoming and also because the pacing is otherwise moment to moment.Īll of that adds up to something I can absolutely understand as a bit of a critical darling (four stars plus some love in terms of buzz and comments on posts earlier in the year around here). So I believe this Montana, but someone else - say, from Montana - might not: Accuracy once again in the eye of the reader, rather than an objective quality.īy and large, Cam’s voice rings true, too. Note, however, that I am a born and bred New Yorker, and have only spent six years of my life more than 25 miles from midtown Manhattan. The sense of place, conveyed through that graceful prose, is likewise excellent. Even when there is action, it was delivered in a way that slows it down, full of the lazy heat of those Montana summers when so much of this takes place). You need to just immerse yourself in Cam’s life, and don’t expect any major action. This might be the slowest book I’ve read this year, and it’s long.

The miseducation of cameron post by emily danforth